How People Screw Up "The Secret"

I can't help notice how many "Secret" fans are still broke. They're probably a happier broke, but still broke. And I can't help thinking that they just don't get it.

Here's an example: recently I was talking to a die hard "The Secret" fan about a challenge in our business. His advice was to sit and visualize the problem gone, and feeling happy and fulfilled. He gave me a passionate lecture about it. But he didn't like my response. I told him to image being in a room with a smelly pair of shoes in the middle. He has two choices: visualize a wonderful, fresh, clean smelling room, or chuck the shoes out the window. Nothing against visualization, but it's just a lot easier to chuck the source of the problem than to play mind tricks.

"Gasp!" You say. Are you criticizing "The Secret!"- Infidel!

Well, hold on just a minute. All I'm saying is that I see a lot of people who treat The Secret like some sort of feel good drug. It makes them feel better, it's like a religion, but they aren't willing to change their behavior.

One more analogy. I have a vegetable garden. I don't know why. I'm a lousy gardener. But that's beside the point. The fact is, I can plant, hoe, water and till with a lousy attitude, but the plants all grow anyway. As a matter of fact, whether I have a good attitude or not, those dang plants just follow the laws of nature and seem to grow with or without my visualization, attitude, or skill. Pesky things.

So I guess given the choice between practical action with a lousy attitude, and wonderful visualization exercises without action, I'll take the action path any day. It's been said that if everybody waited until conditions were right to get to work, none of the great literature would ever have been created.

So, while I'm not endorsing a bad attitude, I feel sorry for that group of Secret fans that feel good, and are convinced that they are on a higher plane, but are wasting time sitting beside their garden visualizing when they should be out there sweating and working to get a crop.